The House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee set up to investigate the utilisation of Ecological Fund released to the National Agency for the Great Green Wall (NAGGW) has exonerated the management of the agency from alleged fraudulent financial deals.
The ad hoc committee, led by Hon Ismaila Dabo, was set up in July following a motion by Hon Ali Lawan Shettima on “the Need to Investigate the Utilisation of Ecological Funds Released to the Great Green Wall by the International Organisations from 2015 to Date; and All Federal Allocations to the National Agency for the Great Green Wall as well as all Contract Awarded to Various Contractors for the Project from 2019 to Date.”
The agency, at the inaugural sitting of the ad hoc committee, allegedly spent the sum of N81.2 billion on planting of 21 million trees across 11 frontline states, including Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Kano, Jigawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Adamawa, Yobe and Borno.
The 15-man committee also queried some of the expenditures under review.
Findings by LEADERSHIP revealed however that the Director-General/CEO of NAGGW, Dr. Yusuf Maina Bukar, in his presentation before the committee last September offered clarification on budgetary allocation to the agency.
The DG, who assumed office in April 2022, said N53.42 billion was released to the agency from inception to July 2023, as against the sum of N81.2 billion which the agency was alleged to have spent.
Dismissing the bogus amount mentioned and reported by the media, the DG of the NAGGW maintained that the agency has not acted outside its mandate in the implementation of the Great Green Wall Programme.
He noted that not all of the N53.42 billion received were used directly on planting activities.
He clarified: “The NAGGW cost of planting, from inception in 2015 to July 2023, is N5,145,735,470.15. The approximate sum of N7.2 billion balance in the Agency’s account are liabilities already committed to ongoing contracts that have already been awarded.
“All unutilised funds from capital appropriation are refunded to Federal Government TSA account at the end of the financial year where applicable.”
The Hon. Dabo committee in its report also faulted the claim of N81.2 billion to the agency.
“Evidence from the hearing indicates that the NAGGW received a total sum of N53,425,423,874.34 (Fifty-three Billion, Four Hundred and Twenty-five Million, Four Hundred and Twenty-three Thousand, Eight Hundred- and Seventy-four-naira, Thirty-four Kobo) only from inception in 2015 to July, 2023,” he explained.
The committee also stumbled on certain startling revelations as discovered in its investigation that the agency did not receive budgetary allocation for 2015 and that ecological funding was not released to the agency until 2019.
The probe panel also discovered that “the percentage of ecological funding going to the agency was reduced from 15% provided for by the Act to just 5% with effect from January 2020 to date.”
The committee, in its report acknowledged paucity and untimely release of funds, inability to access foreign assistance and absence of a governing board as some of the factors hindering the performance of the agency.
The lawmakers equally frowned at unilateral reduction in the statutory allocation to the agency by fiat, and urged government, as a matter of urgency, to revert the Ecological Fund releases to the agency back to 15 percent as provided for by the NAGGW Act.
“That the total sum of N20,168,363,662.18 (Twenty Billion, One Hundred and Sixty-Eight Million, Three Hundred and Sixty-Three Thousand, Six Hundred- And Sixty-Two-Naira, Eighteen Kobo) only being the shortfall of the reduction from Ecological Fund for January, 2020 to date, be immediately released to the Agency to fund its activities.”
Other recommendations of the committee reads in part: “Similarly, the Ecological fund office should calculate remit to the NAGGW the total sums due to the agency from the Ecological Fund from 2015 to 2018.
“Urge the National Agency for the Great Green Wall to as a matter of urgency include the frontline states of Adamawa, Bauchi and Gombe States in the fourth phase of the afforestation projects which is to commence soon.
“There is urgent need for the agency to undertake recruitment of staff, especially for its offices at the front line states; need for a greater collaboration and synergy between the NAGGW and the Federal Ministry of Environment.”
The panel further urged the federal government to constitute a governing board for the National Agency for the Great Green Wall.
It also recommended the need for extensive enlightenment of the general public on the sustainable use of the forest for preservation.
Apart from submissions by the Federal Ministry Of Environment, the Central Bank of Nigeria, Office of the Accountant General of the Federation and the Ecological Project Office, the committee also undertook on-the-spot assessment visit to projects sites in some of the frontline states, namely Kano, Jigawa and Sokoto states.